SHOIGU IRKED
Vremya Novostei, October 30, 2001, p. 1
Currently on a visit to Murmansk, Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov has officially confirmed reports that investigators are working at the Russian Emergency Ministry. Ustinov added that there are no grudges against Sergei Shoigu personally. It turns out that Ustinov’s subordinates investigate a case where one of Shoigu’s former deputy ministers is mentioned. Shoigu was nevertheless irritated. In a conversation with reporters, he was clearly perplexed that a mundane examination had been turned into a “show”. Shoigu says planned examinations like that had taken place in 1995, 1996, 1998, and 2000, and criminal proceedings had never even been mentioned. Closer to the end of the press conference, Shoigu went nuclear. “I think you’d have been happy to be near the Lefortovo now reporting who is being transferred to what cell. Forget it”, ha said. Shoigu never explained his emotional flare up. Sources at the Emergency Ministry offer two hypotheses. According to one of them, investigators have chosen a bad moment to turn up at the Emergency Ministry – on the eve of the Unity congress. According to the other, there is actually a criminal case, and detectives are investigating past activities of the Emergency Ministry.
A SHADE OF A NEW KHASAVYURT?
Izvestia, October 30, 2001, p. 2
The major events occurred in the vicinity of Argun and Gudermes. A military convoy and the military commandant’s office came under fire in Argun at about 1700 on Sunday. Nothing is known of losses. At approximately the same time Salavdi Gairbekov, chief of the Nozhai-Yurt district internal affair department, and those accompanying him were murdered in Argun. The town was blocked and closed for transport. That same evening the car of Yan Sergunin, chief of the apparatus of the republican administration, came under fire in Argun. The Volga was moving fast when the incident happened and it managed to get out.
To return to Yastrzhembsky. Officially, the trip was planned. According to a source from Yastrzhembsky’s apparatus, “the boss will convene a meeting with heads of press services of security structures involved in the united federal group. Apart from that, he will present the new website of the Chechen government”.
According to information gathered by Izvestia, Yastrzhembsky’s trip is needed to prepare public opinion for negotiations between Kazantsev and Zakayev and to “a shift in the accent” from “war to peace” in how the situation in Chechnya is highlighted.
Senior officers of the united federal group remain fairly nervous when the subject of negotiations is brought up. “It is time politicians understood another Khasavyurt’1996 will mean serious trouble for the authorities from the most law-abiding Russians, from Russia officers”.
